Thursday morning I got up at 7 and started to get ready after breakfast. Of course it was a lot more work to get the boat ready to go than I had planned. So, I wasn’t ready with that until 10 o’clock. Lots of boats had come by already, since this was going to be a narrow weather window for vessel to leave (though everyone else was heading east, and I am sure none of those ended up doing any sailing without an engine running).
It was easy to get through the bridge, since there were so many boats leaving. I came right behind a sports fishing boat who needed an opening, so I just went through right behind him. Once outside the wind was still blowing pretty stiff, close to 20 knots at times. Went for just the genoa, and regretted not putting on the smaller jib. It was pretty hard to get the trim on the sail right, but it was a pretty easy sail with the wind from the port quarter. Once under way and further out the waves started to get bigger, but the boat was going pretty good with it.
After noon the wind became weaker, but I waited quite a while before putting up the main. Did not want to get caught with too much sail up in a big wind gust. But past 2 it was quiet enough, and with the main the speed went back up from 4.5 to 6 knots. The wind was predicted to turn further to the south, but that never really happened. Closer to Key West the course became more north and at times the main started to blank the genoa. With about 5 miles to go I got the main down and went back to just the genoa, that way I would have and easy gibe once I had to steer north rounding the Key.
Coming into the channel there were two cruise ships at the cruise terminal. And one was just leaving, so he was backing away from the terminal, blocking the whole channel. Than had to come around and take off south. I started the engine as soon as I realized what was going to happen. Furled in the genoa and putted around trying to stay clear of the cruise ships as much as possible. It all went fine, but I am glad I stayed away as far as possible, the sea around the bow of the cruise ship looked like a whirlpool.
Key West does not have a very good anchorage. I decided to anchor off the south east side of Wisteria Island (not much of an island anyway, a small sand bank with mangroves on it). This was to be protected from the predicted stronger winds from the west on Friday.
1 in the morning I woke up, the boat was rolling a lot. There was a little bit of swell coming from the south east and no wind. Later we had two pretty hefty thunderstorms with lots of rain.